While at a networking breakfast this morning, I heard a gentleman explain his company’s offerings. Think of it as providing fractional Database Administrator services for smaller companies (that can’t afford a full time DBA) and you’ll be pretty close. Pretty geeky stuff for most people, right? Especially when the value proposition is avoiding downtime, and […]

I wear masks. Not the kind you buy in a costume store. Those are uncomfortable, and I’ve never actually aspired to look like Iron Man anyway. No, I put on the kind we all learn to wear, in order to survive in a rough-and-tumble world. The “everything’s going great!” mask. The “I’ve got this!” mask. […]

I love websites that are clear and to the point. Few words, clear imagery, lots of white space. Just see what Tate Parker does here with his new website: Confession – for years, I interacted with Tate at local Nashville-area networking meetings, and I had trouble wrapping my mind around his business value proposition. […]

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. – Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll Translation: ??????????? This popular poem full of nonsense phrases reminds me of many business presentations I’ve heard. The speaker apparently has some idea of what he is […]

“Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky It’s an oft-quoted saying, and for good reason – we need to set our GPS to the direction we intend to go in. If you’re heading west to California, don’t point your car at the Jersey Shore. That’s not […]

As the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what it means to “coalesce” – to unite into a whole, bringing together different parts. It’s not just a fun word that rhymes with “success”. It’s a business approach that anyone can tap into. It’s weaving opportunity together, […]

I get to see a lot of presentations. Plenty of Powerpoint. I would rate most of these performances as somewhere between awful and intolerable, with an occasional mix of meh. But it’s so easy to fix. Here’s the key thing: Make one visually engaging point per slide. That’s it. One point. See the above? That’s […]

What is one of the most frustrating things for any communicator (and I mean any – teachers, trainers, marketers, bloggers, pastors, salespeople…)? Our message doesn’t get across. It doesn’t “stick”. The minds of our audiences are overloaded, and the noise level that surrounds us all continues to increase. How do we break through? Here’s […]

eBay stepped right in it. They seem to have forgotten that their audience was….human beings. A friend forwarded me this jargon-loaded email from eBay explaining some new advances in their payment processing system. Click the image to read the whole thing (if you’re into that sort of pain…) – here’s part of the opening […]

Or, why I don’t fear Artificial Intelligence. I spent some time recently with the owner of a pub specializing in a wide – and I do mean wide! – selection of libations. (this picture only shows SOME of what is on tap. Then, there’s all the shelves of cans and bottles…I’m thirsty just thinking about […]